My name Paula Victoria (P.V.) and although it's taken me a lot of work to get to a place where I'm able to to not define myself only (or mostly) by what I do, I feel like for the purpose of this section it's only fitting that I introduce myself this way. 

For me personally, the question "what do you do?" has never been one I could answer in one word or even a sentence. Unless the sentence is "a whole bunch of things".  Whenever I'm asked that, I usually start by saying that I do my best to simultaneously work in two, slightly overlapping, but mostly very different areas, or 'pools' as I like to call them. In one I'm a multidisciplinary creative and in the other I'm a holistic health and well-being guide. That (very broadly) covers it, but you're welcome to read on for more details.

​The CREATIVE pool
Here I’ve been a photographer for about 15 years now, and a few years ago I finally started getting into video-making, which had been my dream for a very long time. Both of those things are very much tied to my love for preserving moments, whether it's things I personally want to capture, remember or share, or about doing the same for my clients (individual or businesses). I've worked as a residential interior designer for well over 10 years now, helping people make their homes work better for them- both visually and ergonomically. It's important to me that the spaces I help create look visually pleasing, reflect the clients' character and needs, but also inspire healthy and sustainable habits and lifestyle. On top of designing for others, privately I have also been a big fan of upcycling and DIY, especially in the area of home improvement, and have done a lot of these kinds of projects. Occasionally, I also take on commercial graphic design projects (posters, flyers, business cards, logos, presentations, etc.) and consult on brand identity and online presence; and I dabble in photo-graphics, although more as a hobby than anything else. I have also worked as an actor, which is something I would love to do more of one day. I also write and I paint.
Since studying nutrition and transitioning into a plant-based diet, I've been creating whole-food plant-based recipes, first for myself and then to share with my holistic health clients (more on that below), but with time, I've also led whole food plant-based cooking and baking workshops and sold a lot of my vegan desserts as part of my business. Though I would never call myself a professional chef or baker, I've enjoyed introducing people to healthier alternatives of desserts and snacks as well as showing them that adding more plants into their meals can still be both simple and delicious.
I add traveling to this pool as well, because the way I usually do it ties it to creativity quite a bit. The Earth is such a magnificent planet and I would love to experience as much of it as possible in the short time that I have here. I love that I've been able to share a lot of these experiences with other people and I'm hoping to share even more. Although I do have to admit that I'm still not sure if I'm a world traveller by nature or if all of that has simply been me looking for a corner of the world to call my home. I guess time will tell.
On top of all that, in the past I also used to do a lot of event organizing work, but I've decided to shift away from it over the past few years as I dove deeper into the other pool. 

The HOLISTIC HEALTH & WELL-BEING pool.
Struggling with my own mental and physical health for many years and getting very disappointed with simply being offered pills to alleviate my symptoms instead of tackling the root cause of the problems, and getting no or very general advice on how to manage living with them, about 10 years ago, I, very gradually at first, immersed myself in the world of the holistic approach to health and well-being. An approach that looks at a person as as a whole, at all of our systems and actions as interwoven parts of the tapestry in the shape of who we are, a tapestry that's unique to each and every individual. An approach that's personalized and doesn't focus merely on mitigating the symptoms but on actually getting down to the root cause, even if that means that the healing process isn't as quick or straightforward as many of us would like it to be. I am by no means done with this work, it's a life-long journey for sure, but at a certain point, as I managed to rewire my brain in ways that started leading to better health and well-being. The results of my lifestyle changes must have become quite visible on the outside because with time I started getting asked for advice about how and what I was doing. Despite already having a degree in Psychology and some experience working with people, I still didn't feel that I had enough knowledge in the holistic realm to confidently advise others, so I dove even deeper into both self-studying as well as enrolling in certification courses in nutrition, yoga, meditation and Ayurveda (along with all of the modern science that supports its teachings).
With time, I've become what I like to refer to as a holistic health and well-being guide, (something between a teacher and a coach). And as such, I've done my best to provide people with tools to get to know themselves better so that they could learn how to best take care of their unique bodies, minds and energies, and easily restore balance whenever life throws us off balance, which it tends to do quite a bit. I strongly believe that although we’re all humans, we are all unique and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to our issues. It’s all individual. But if it’s all individual, how do we know what works for us specifically? This is where I teach Ayurveda as well as introduce certain elements of Human Design, (of which I've now also become a reader) and guide my clients using my OCTA•HOLI Model for Holistic Health and Well-Being. I've developed it by combining my ever-expanding understanding of these ancient systems with the latest research from my favorite contemporary lifestyle sciences such as epigenetics, chronobiology, neuroplasticity & neuroscience, microbiome science, plant-based nutrition, positive psychology, happiness studies and many more fields that I've followed consistently for many years now. These modern sciences not only support the ancient teachings of Ayurveda (and other world's wisdom traditions such as Chinese Medicine for example) but also provide tremendous, and often revolutionary even for our time, source of knowledge about how our body-minds work (and how it differs from what we used to think even 20 years ago!). I combine all that along with science-based stress management techniques, Yoga, and meditation, as well as with what I call “practices for happiness” and provide my clients with personalized tools and information they can use to better their well-being as well as their understanding of how uniquely they work- physiologically, psychologically and energetically. It's my hope that by also understanding their own selves better, they can customize those tools even further, all by themselves. I strongly believe that by using such tools appropriately we can take responsibility for our own happiness by becoming active participants in our own unique journeys of healing and personal growth.

A beautiful cheery on top of all that is that by getting to know our true selves, as unique as they are, we also gain more understanding, respect for how very different other people can be from us and we often are able to better appreciate our own and everyone else's role in this grand cosmic play we're all a part of. And being able to help with that, even in a small way, really warms my heart.

​

As an HSP myself, I also work with other Highly Sensitive People and do my best to educate the world about what Sensory Processing Sensitivity is and how 20% of us are living with this trait for better or worse. 

 

Although it's never been the primary focus of my career, I am very grateful to also have had many opportunities to teach children, teenagers and adults English as a Second Language in conversations, mainly with the focus on the basics of human biology and psychology (corresponding to the holistic health aspects I weave into everything I teach), critical thinking, as well as media literacy. Beyond lifestyle, I have also provided career and employability guidance to high school and university students as well as young professionals.

I hope that this website can provide a space for me to share both the things I create myself as well as some of the knowledge I gain as a constant student of life, ever so curious to learn and understand how we work and how we can live the best life possible during this blink-of-an-eye moment we get to be here for.